Our Community Engagement Projects in Detroit

Good fortune may play a role, but such results are due largely to having a team with the right knowledge and experience, starting at the top. Buzz has co-chaired two presidential campaigns in Michigan, he founded a Super PAC credited with electing Mike Duggan as Detroit’s mayor, and he spent 14 years in the Michigan Legislature, serving as the Democratic floor leader in the Michigan Senate and the Democratic leader in the Michigan House of Representatives. 

The Activate Detroit elections team also includes democracy consultant August Gitschlag, a Michigan-certified election official and a working elections clerk. August has been the Clawson city clerk since May 2021 and previously served as Hamtramck’s city clerk for nearly eight years. 

It’s this kind of leadership and expertise that’s helping Activate Detroit deliver wins for our election-related clients — and for democracy in Detroit and across Michigan. 

Creating voting solutions for the long-term

When COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic in early 2020, concerns emerged nationwide about ensuring safe access to voting. Activate Detroit was asked to play a central role in a new program called Detroit Votes, which would help local governments and election officials meet the needs of citizens. Long voting lines — not a new phenomenon — became an even more complicated issue. With so much uncertainty about COVID-19 transmission, would voters feel comfortable standing in line, potentially putting themselves at risk?

Activate Detroit used our positive relationships with the mayor’s office and the city clerk’s office to facilitate improvements in voter safety and access. We helped Detroit Votes apply for grants to fund the necessary resources, which included election equipment, staffing, personal protective equipment, election processing equipment, satellite voting locations, and the installation of 30 ballot drop boxes and security cameras. 

“Having 24-hour surveillance of ballot drop boxes is now a state law, but Activate Detroit anticipated the need before that,” August says. 

The biggest role Activate Detroit played was in program management. We brought back pandemic-furloughed workers to staff satellite voting centers, we partnered with the mayor’s office to encourage Detroit-based employers to consider Election Day a work holiday, and we helped Detroit Votes run a voter education campaign promoting all the ways citizens could cast their ballots, reaching them through radio ads and text messages. 

The project soon expanded beyond Detroit, and Activate Detroit helped secure close to 300 grants for other Michigan cities to implement similar initiatives. “This effort was especially important to struggling cities like Flint, which was just beginning to recover after its water crisis,” Buzz says. 

True to a project goal for sustainability, the 2020 solutions were used again in 2022 and will remain in place moving forward.

“Activate Detroit built the relationships and figured out how to get the right resources in place,” says Mark Solomon, project manager for Detroit Votes. “Nobody was more skilled, more competent, and more driven to work through difficult relationships. And Buzz was hugely excited about this program because it is close to his value system.”

Educating the electorate

Elections need informed citizens who are registered to vote. To that end, Activate Detroit worked with the philanthropy-led coalition Cities Forward to find ways to incorporate voter education and registration into all interactions citizens have with government agencies in Detroit. 

In 2022, with our assistance, Cities Forward implemented a number of efforts to let Detroiters know about the midterm elections. This included securing funding for nonprofit organizations to go door-to-door on behalf of the city of Detroit — ultimately knocking on 120,000 doors over the course of the summer and fall.

“They were reminding people it was an election year and they had choices,” Buzz says. “They didn’t tell them what choices to make, but educated them on how to participate in the election.”

Voter education was at the center of another project: the 2022 Reproductive Freedom for All campaign for Proposal 3, a successful ballot initiative to protect the right to abortion and reproductive care access under the Michigan Constitution. Activate Detroit helped build the coalition of organizations that started the campaign, and we made sure the media campaign was culturally relevant, as communities of color are most likely to be impacted by limited access to care. 

 

Getting businesses on board

Also in 2022, Activate Detroit provided support for a national project called Democracy is Good for Business. This nonpartisan organization’s goal is to encourage corporations and their leadership to stand up for democracy. 

Activate Detroit worked with Michigan corporations to help them understand the role they play in democracy, and to communicate their support for the principles of democracy to their employees and the public. 

“Not only did we help with communications, we also worked diligently throughout 2022 to organize business leaders, the Detroit Regional Chamber and other chambers of commerce, and other business-focused organizations to get them either signed up as members of Democracy is Good for Business or partnering with us in work groups,” Buzz says. “We did a lot of organizing with the expectation that we’d need corporations to help mediate any disputes after the election, but fortunately we were wrong about needing that.”

Mitigating misinformation

Protecting the integrity of elections was also central to Activate Detroit’s work with the Voter Empowerment Task Force in 2022. We brought together the many organizations dedicated to combatting misinformation and preventing election deniers from impeding the electoral process. It was equally important to bring in the support of law enforcement and prosecutors, making them aware of threats from misinformation or of violence and preparing them to act if necessary.

“When we did hear threats, we were able to very quickly alert law enforcement or elections administrators about the possibility,” August says.

 

Facilitating fair redistricting

In 2018, voters endorsed a ballot initiative to amend the Michigan Constitution to establish the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission. The goal is to make sure Michigan’s Congressional, state Senate, and state House district lines are drawn fairly in a citizen-led, transparent process.

During the redistricting process, Buzz was brought in to facilitate the organizing work of roughly 20 organizations. He ensured a collaborative process that adhered to the rules of the Constitutional amendment.

“We also tried to educate the commission on what we think a ‘community of interest’ is and how to create a voice for the people,” Buzz says. “Strategically aligning districts for marginalized groups gives them, and the organizations that represent them, a better opportunity to be heard in an election.”

For example, organizations representing the LGBTQ+ community have historically been divided across many districts. After Activate Detroit’s involvement, those organizations in Detroit created a voice for themselves and are now in the same district for the first time. The same is true for the Latino and Arab American communities — and the unified districts led to the election of more people from those communities. Buzz says there’s still work to be done to coalesce representation of the Black community, which he hopes Activate Detroit can be involved in when the next redistricting takes place in 2030.

Delivering results for democracy

In 2023, Activate Detroit was again asked to help with Detroit elections, this time to assist in the work of the Alliance for Election Excellence and its support of the city clerk’s office. The goal is to share best practices in elections, including lessons learned from around the country.

We were also asked to work on the implementation of Proposal 2 of 2022 — the Promote the Vote ballot initiative that strengthens voting protections in Michigan. 

“Our role is making sure local clerks have a voice in the process,” August says. “Other recent changes to voting in Michigan — such as nine days of early voting — will present logistical challenges to county election directors and clerks in larger cities. We’ll help communities find the resources they need to maintain the necessary level of service.” 

The breadth and variety of our election-related projects demonstrate Activate Detroit’s ability to bring together organizations and achieve outstanding results. It’s also a testament to our commitment to democracy and ensuring that every citizen’s voice is heard.

“This is the kind of work that gets me up in the morning,” Buzz says. “I’ve always believed in the importance of people being able to participate in voting fairly and safely — which means fighting for democracy and making it work for all people.”